On February 15th, 24 year-old Adam Salnardi went to a park in Gresham to meet someone he had met online. Instead, he found five people who beat him and robbed him in what is being considered as a hate crime against him because of his sexual orientation. This isn’t the first time Salnardi has been targeted because he is gay.

His experience is one of many where people are targeted because of their race, religion, gender or sexual orientation. The Southern Poverty Law Center lists hate incidents from across the country. A search for Oregon shows five such incidents in 2012 including these:

In Monmouth “a racial slur was carved into the door at St. James African Methodist Episcopal Church.

In Springfield “a 15-year-old biracial youth was allegedly chased by a truck occupied by four white people who yelled racial slurs and threatened him.”